Senior Love Triangle is a 2020 drama about an elderly man who forms relationships with two women and goes on a crusade to save them from the isolation of their retirement homes.
William Selig (Tom Bower) is an 84-year-old man with some history, a World War II vet living in Hollywood, or at least trying. He’s just been kicked out of a retirement home he’s been sneaking into, shacking up with a resident named Adina (Anne Gee Byrd). They are close, but the rules prohibit Adina from doubling up, and so he’s out on the street, rather aggressively. He quickly finds a room at another home, where he meets Jeanie (Marlyn Mason), a former USO entertainer. They connect straight away, and soon enough, William has himself two women, with entirely opposite personalities, and a host of problems to handle, though it doesn’t stop him from trying to save them both.
Written and directed (among a number of other roles) by Kelly Blatz, Senior Love Triangle is inspired by a true story, this adaptation centered on a man who claims himself a true son of god, shaped by his experience in the war, convinced anyone against him is a Nazi. He’s not stable, but he’s not unaware, trying to keep some sense of balance in a world that is constantly off its axis. I love his use of “Richard Nixon.” He’s intelligent and serious, passionate and empathetic yet can’t seem to make the right choices, especially with money, even as his intentions remain true.
All this teeters on a thin line between humor and drama, where the story itself seems something this side of absurd, which of course is itself absurd as surely, the tangled love lives of the elderly are surely as robust of those far their junior. Maybe just not so energetic. And maybe not so ravaged by jealousy. The relationship between Adina and Jeanie is something of a marvel, the two initially positioned at odds before finding strength by each other’s sides. They both care for William, share him openly together, and in their own ways, need him. Yet they are both powerful females with their own histories struggling to keep love between them all. Which includes sex.
That’s not handled with kid gloves here, the physicality of these three played as importantly as the words between them. Nor is the genuine frailties of who these people are, each in their eighties. Jeanie slips in and out of emotional breakdowns, sometimes in mid-sentence, not realizing where she is or even the year. Adina comes from money and is used to a sort of upscale life, always dressed like she is going out. She’s a poet with a published book, and believes in William even as it’s clear he sinks deeper with every step.
Many might remember Byrd and Mason from their decades of television work, dating back to the 60s and 70s, while Die Hard 2 fans will surely recognize Bower. He too is a long time supporting actor well deserving of a role this meaty, one that lets the seasoned actor hollow out the edges on a once-in-a-lifetime role. This is a complicated character, riddled with irreparable damage, meaning well but permanently shifted into a delusion that leaves only destruction in its path. Bower is in remarkable command of this spiral, traveling William into a darkness for which there can be no return.
Blatz shoulders himself with a difficult task, bringing to the screen a reimagining of a series of award-winning photographs, themselves richly endowed with a kind of hopeful melancholy. And yet, he does just that, capturing well the intricate details of these striking images by breathing depth into the visual narrative, keeping these characters true to their inspiration (even recreating many of the photographs) while redefining what they might mean to the viewer. It’s a fascinating watch, made more so if going in already knowing what led to its creation.
And here lies the smallest of quibbles, and one I image Blatz himself might have been challenged by in building his story, that of the rest of the cast. So entrenched in the world they live in are the three leads, everyone they encounter along the way seems a distraction, or at the very least, minor. That’s a compliment to Byrd, Mason, and of course Bower, who so effortlessly pulse with drama, they leave most everyone else in shadow. Either way, Senior Love Triangle is an uncommon film experience, one that may not have the broadest of draw for all audiences, but is nonetheless a slice of humanity well worth a look.